Geography, media, and communications have been closely linked since the
16^th Century. Just as the advent of the printing press changed the
media landscape, so too did it change that of geography and cartography.
The printing revolution, along with new instruments of measurement led
to a prolific expansion of mapping activates in the 16^th Century,
producing increasingly detailed birds eye views of the world. These
views from above worked to serve as tools of possession, the elevated
position of the explorer and cartographers and the commanding view
provided by the maps mirrored the divine gaze of God, positioning the
commissioner of the map in a seemingly omniscient position, solidifying
their position of control, changing perceptions and relationships with
space itself. In this way, the Cartographic Gaze was the precursor to
the surveillent gaze, epitomized by Bentham’s Panopticon and the work of
Foucault. A number of texts have already examined the linkages between
geography, media and communications; Innis’s (1950) classic text on
/Empire and Communications/; Falkheimer and Jansson’s (2006)
/Geographies of Communication/ explores communicationtheory’s /spatial
turn/, and conversely Adams and Jansson’s (2012) examination of
geography’s /communicational turn/. Yet, as we move further and deeper
into a digitized world we are bombarded with ever more instruments of
measurement (big data, algorithms, UGC, VGI etc.), ever more far
reaching versions of the printing press (Web 2.0, Social Media etc.),
and the waters are muddied further by the development of
Participatory-GIS systems, and the (re-)birth of Neogeography which
purportedly offers up a challenge to the status quo (Goodchild, 2009;
Haklay, 2013). Thus, it becomes essential that, just as we might
question the 16^th century map makers, we must now question data
analytics, algorithms and their architects, the media, and those who
claim to contest the cartographic gaze; to ask, ‘/did you find the world
or did you make it up?’ /to quote Winnicott (/cited in/ Corner, 1999).
The media, data analysts and neogeographers all sit in-between the
virtual and the real creating new forms of virtual time and space that
are then superimposed onto territorial spaces (Potts: 2015). These new
virtual spaces are still so too controlled and mediated from above by
new omniscient digital Gods, propelled by their search for profits.

This call for papers aims to bring together the disciplines of geography
and communication to draw out and challenge a number of problematic
discourses in relation to power, knowledge and representation,
recognizing not only that each are material and symbolic, but also that
each particular place representation is contingent and unique (Hall,
1980). As the world, the media and our communications tools become
increasingly digitalized and data driven we are increasingly
constructing myths through algorithms, visualization, codification and
mediation, of all which require us to rethink and interpret signs and
their connotations (Hall, 1997; Barthes, 1972). Late twentieth century
communication and information technologies have produced such a blurring
of what is real and what is representation that the two can no longer be
distinguished (Corner, 1999). Geography has often been concerned with
the scales of state, capital, power, knowledge and representation,
leading many theorists to cross the divide between disciplines; Michel
de Certeau, Pierre Bourdieu, David Harvey and Henri Lefebvre being clear
examples. It is then perhaps, through combining the knowledge of
geographers, media and communication theorists and social theorists that
we can better understand the twenty-first century’s increasing
spatialization of thought and experience.

Themes may also include but are not limited to the following:
• Maps as tools of communication
• Communication infrastructure and power relations
• Representation and communications
• Cultural Geography and the media
• Geography and communication
• Spatial dimensions of technology
• Geospatial data analysis for communication
• The geographies of data visualization
• Participatory GIS
• Counter-mapping and tactical media
• Globalization, cartography and inequality
//

• *Submission of Abstracts:* Prospective authors of research articles of
between 6,000-8,000 words including notes and references are encouraged
to send a 250-word abstract to (WPCC2015 /at/ gmail.com)
<mailto:(WPCC2015 /at/ gmail.com)> no later than end *19**^th January 2018.*

• The editorial team of WPCC will endeavour to inform authors of
abstracts by end 1^st February 2018 if the abstract meets the brief of
the issue and if WPCC would like to request submission of a full text
with a view to inclusion, subject to peer-review and editing on delivery.

• *Deadline for full-text submission:* 20^th April 2018. Authors of
those abstracts encouraged by WPCC or new submissions should register at
the journal website by* 20*^*th* * April 2018 *attaching the article.
Authors will be notified as soon as possible about acceptance, revisions
or rejection and the outcome of the review process with a view to
publishing accepted articles subject to any amendments requested. Please
route communications about articles submitted via the journal's online
system. Please submit articles via:
_https://www.westminsterpapers.org/about/submissions.
<https://www.westminsterpapers.org/about/submissions>_

With apologies for any cross-postingfrom the *WPCC (Westminster Papers
in Communication and Culture)* editorial board. **